The pleasures of off-season travel
and a recipe for a British favourite: sticky toffee pudding
In my neck of the woods, March Break is about to officially kick off.
And boy, am I glad I won’t be in an airport anytime soon.
Of course, it’s impossible for families to change the system. After all, March Break, and every other school holiday, is pre-programmed. Planning becomes paramount, and it’s worth following tips like these to get ahead of the curve.
But layer in unpredictable weather, flight delays, cranky kids and lost luggage, and suddenly the reward of travel seems precarious at best. It might lead you to rethink the off-season vacation.
Timing is everything
After years of delayed and postponed trips, pent-up demand is at an all time high. According to Expedia, searches for March and April flights were up by 40 per cent this year compared to last year. Even higher airfares, persistent inflation and talk of a recession haven’t quelled our wanderlust.
And that goes beyond the busy school holiday season. Global tourism is expected to rise by 30% in 2023 and summer travel will be off the charts for both beloved destinations and off the beaten path adventures.
I’ve had my share of wanderlust, fuelled first by a wonderful trip to Lisbon late in 2021 and a highly anticipated holiday with friends to the UK planned for last May. When that trip fell through, it was back to the drawing board. Coordinating four people’s schedules isn’t easy at the best of times and it was especially hard to find two weeks when we could all be free to travel.
That brought us to February and early March. Not the most popular of months for travelling, especially to England. But the chill in the air and the sometimes rainy skies did nothing to dampen out travellers’ hearts. We were able to get reservations and theatre tickets easily; the streets were bustling with locals, while the “sites” were not; the sense of welcome was everywhere. And though the air was cool, the daffodils made splashes of colour in the parks against the green green grass.
It reinforced for me that I want to travel when I can truly be part of the landscape; when I can absorb the sense of place, mingle with the locals, slow down the pace because I have time. The world awaits…where will you go to next?
Sticky toffee pudding
Bonnie Stern, Friday Night Dinners
makes 12 to 14 cakes
No matter where we ate on our recent trip to England, there seemed to be two constants on our table: triple-cooked chips and sticky toffee pudding.
Sticky toffee pudding is the quintessential British sweet, ubiquitous on menus everywhere. While its origins are in dispute, there may be an interesting Canadian connection. Francis Coulson and Robert Lee developed sticky toffee pudding in the 1970s and served it at the Sharrow Bay Country House Hotel in Cumbria. Coulson has said he got the recipe from innkeeper Patricia Martin, who in turn got it from Canadian Air Force officers who lodged at her hotel during the Second World War.
Whatever its provenance, this dessert is easy to make, fun to serve and utterly delicious. You can bake this in individual ramekins (or muffin pans), or whole in a 9” springform pan (about an hour).
Ingredients
12 ounces pitted dates (about 1½ cups)
2 cups boiling water
1½ teaspoons baking soda
⅓ cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon kosher salt
For the butterscotch sauce:
¾ cup brown sugar
1¼ cups whipping cream
½ cup butter, cut into pieces
Combine dates with water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Add baking soda, let stand 5 minutes and puree. Cool.
Preheat oven to 350F. Butter (or spray or use paper liners) a 12-cup muffin pan or ramekins.
Cream butter with sugar with an electric mixer. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla.
In another bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix flour mixture into batter alternately with pureed dates in 3 or 4 additions, beginning and ending with flour. Scoop batter into prepared pans and bake 20 to 25 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
Meanwhile, for sauce, combine sugar, cream and butter in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer gently 5 minutes or until slightly thickened.
Prick cakes with a skewer or fork when they are still hot and drizzle about half the sauce over the top and let it sink in. Cool cakes for 10 minutes and then gently remove from pans. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream in addition to the remaining sauce if desired.
Daffodils! Looks like a dreamy trip!
And I will have to try that Sticky Pudding from Bonnie. Bises to you both.